Galaxian
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Galaxian is a shoot 'em up in which the player is at the bottom of the screen, with an arrangement of aliens at the top. The player moves left and right to aim at an alien, then shoots a bullet up the screen, and the alien it hits is killed. The aliens are classed as Drones, Emissaries, Hornets and Commanders, with those higher up the screen scoring more points when destroyed. At set intervals an enemy will move down the screen towards you, escorting a bomber, which is a moment of high danger. Clear a wave and another is generated.

Trivia

Atari 2600 programmer Mark Ackerman, at the time working in Atari's "think-tank" GCC, was granted a patent for his technique invented for the 2600 port of Galaxian, allowing eight sprites to be displayed in one row.

Atari's 2600 release of Galaxian came with the comic book Atari Force #5. Here is that comic at AtariAge.com

Was later re-released under the Thunder Mountain label. What makes this trivia? Usually only Mindscape games were released under Thunder Mountain... Galaxian was originally licensed to Atari.

(PC version):
Galaxian (and its clone, Cosmic Crusader) get away with relatively high framerates on the original 4.77MHz PC because they don't use the entire screen for a playfield; the right fifth of the screen (64 pixels) is unused. Another side-effect of shortening the playfield to a width of 256 pixels is the optimization of game calculations, stemming from the fact that horizontal coordinates fit in a single byte instead of two.

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Description from the packaging:

Blast the Galaxian invasion out of the sky.
The thrill of the arcade game.
You feel that spine-tingling exhilaration every time you play Galaxian in an arcade. Now the same sensation is your at home. Wave after wave of Drones, Emissaries, Hornets and Commanders come winging in from deep space. Skillfully, you slide your ship right and left with your joystick, dodging their fire and blasting them out of the universe.

The world's most popular video games can be yours to play at home, now that Atari makes them for the Commodore 64. And the possibilities don't stop there. More compatible software will be available soon from Atarisoft, including educational management and productivity programs.
Atari currently offers the following games on Commodore 64 computers: Joust, Jungle Hunt, Moon Patrol, Pole Position, Ms. Pac-Man, Battlezone, and Galaxian. And there's much more to come!


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/galaxian
